Tormentil

Information on Tormentil

Common Name: Tormentil
Scientific Name: Potentilla erecta
Irish Name: Néalfartach
Family Group: Rosaceae
Distribution: View Map (Courtesy of the BSBI)
Flowering Period


Click for list of all flowering by month
Tormentil could sometimes be confused with:

Tormentil, Trailing,

Extremely widespread little wildflower of heaths, moors and grassy places, Tormentil is a small plant which only reaches to about 30cm high.  It's a creeping, downy, patch-forming perennial with stems which do not root at leaf junctions, (unlike Creeping Tormentil).  The pretty bright yellow 4-petalled flowers (7-15mm across) are borne on slender, downy stalks, have notched petals and 4-12 carpels and 15-20 stamens. The 4 sepals are visible between the petals. They bloom from May to September. The sessile leaves are trifoliate with 2 large stipules at their base and the basal rosette dies back early.  This is a native plant which belongs to the family Rosaceae.

It was in 1976, in Cleggan, Co Galway that I first recorded this wildflower and I photographed it in Laragh, Co Wicklow in 2005.  

If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre

A most useful healing plant, Tormentil is used in many herbal remedies to treat problems of the digestive tract. Its common name is thought to derive from the Latin Tormentum referring to the pain which it relieves.

Tormentil
Tormentil
Tormentil
Tormentil